Giving Not Taking Is The Secret Of Success For West Midlands Entrepreneur
13th April 2010
In addition to running a major international business Melvin gives his time freely to helping others succeed in business.
He is a mentor for The Princes Trust helping young entrepreneurs, hes a Board member of the British Franchise Association, helps Premier Sport deliver sports to schools and he provides a free consultation service for businesses looking to franchise.
Its just my way of giving something back. I strongly believe in franchising and Im happy to help where time permits, said Melvin.
Melvin is Managing Director of Smethwick based Chemex Europes leading supplier of hygiene and cleaning products.
He took control of the business in 2006 and following a period of re-structuring the business is expanding both in the UK and abroad. It recently signed a deal with a partner to take its products into North America and negotiations are on going to set up Chemex operations in Australia, Brazil and Romania.
Chemex was a sleeping giant and our job has been to wake it up and move it forward which we are doing. The company is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and it remains a strong brand which is well respected in the franchising industry.
Im a great believer in training Ive always regarded the businesses Ive run as training organisations. You cant teach someone to deliver a product or service and be a businessman in a couple of weeks its a long term process.
We recruit franchisees who want to be business builders and who have ambition and drive. We give them excellent training and support and have developed a great range of products.
We continue to invest in research and development and we are introducing a range of cleaning products that are biological rather than chemical based and use environmentally friendly enzymes.
It was Melvins giving nature that led him into franchising. His brother had taken a franchise with cleaning company ServiceMaster but was struggling until Melvin stepped in to help.
I was working as a Land Surveyor at the time and I would get home in the evening and go cleaning with my brother. My brother had borrowed my fathers redundancy money to buy ServiceMaster but he ended walking away from it. I decided to give up my company car, private health and pension and take over the Service Master franchise from my brother.
The main reason I got into that business was purely because I wanted to pay my dad back. My dad worked his nuts off and died at 58. He had the same job for 29 years as well as 3 part-time jobs.
Melvin stayed with Service Master for 10 years before joining cleaning and disaster restoration company Rainbow International a move that would change his life.
Melvin said: I started in the April and in the November I ended up buying the master licence. I paid a whole quid for it! It was a mess the previous owners had it for three years and lost 1.8m on it. In the seven months up to me buying it theyd lost 700,000. All I brought to the party was 100,000 and we never went to the bank.
When I bought Rainbow the network turnover was 350,000 and when I sold it, it was nearly 40m and it has continued to grow. I could never have envisaged it being the size it has become.
The decision to buy was wonderful with hindsight, but at the time stupid! It was a huge gamble. The numbers just did not add up.
The sale made Melvin into a multi millionaire but its not money that motivates him.
I love franchising. Ive never done it for the money, which may seem an odd thing to say, but I really havent. The reward comes from watching a person join you, then grow and evolve and get the lifestyle they have dreamt of.
Of course, its nice to be financially secure but I get much more enjoyment out of helping others. The work I do with young people for The Princes Trust where we really get down to business fundamentals is one of the most satisfying things I do.
